Business

North American firms often take great pride in their environmental policies and performance, and justifiably so. Corporate demonstrations of environmental and social responsibility generate long-term marketing and branding advantages, which translate into competitive advantages. American consumers, ...

U.S.-based computer memory chip maker Micron Technology has announced plans to build its first chip manufacturing plant in China in mid-2005, according to an Associated Press report today citing a company executive in Shanghai as its source. Micron plans to spend "likely more" than US$100 million (a...

Salaries of information technology workers will climb as much as 15 percent in the next three years, significantly driving up the cost of managing IT infrastructure for large enterprises, according to a report. The Stamford, Connecticut-based Meta Group said in its annual IT Staffing and Compensatio...

Backing away from a promised processor-speed milestone, Intel yesterday said it would not release a 4 GHz version of its Pentium 4 processor for personal computers early next year as had been planned. Intel did not give specific reasons for the decision to redirect engineering staff away from pushin...

Have you ever dreamed about taking your company public -- the relative ease of raising capital, the ability to use your company's stock to buy other businesses, and the liquidity of your own shares so that you can "cash out" when you are ready? This all sounds good, and it is. But not every business...

In its first major innovation since its August IPO, Google has launched a desktop search engine tool that allows users to search personal computer files at the same speed they "google" the Web. The new application throws the gauntlet directly in Microsoft's front court. "Google Desktop Search brings...

A leading wireless networking industry group is warning vendors not to push ahead too fast on the next generation of WiFi technology, a faster version that will enable a host of new features. The WiFi Alliance said it would not certify features based on the 802.11n standards being developed by the I...

Governments at both the state and federal level in the U.S. are getting serious about addressing the void in the legal framework for fighting "spyware." To begin with, we need to define the term "spyware," due to the fact that this term has been used to describe everything from keystroke loggers, to...

Google took its first bite out of the European commercial market in Great Britain yesterday, launching a beta version of Froogle, an Internet price-comparison service for British shoppers which closely resembles Google's home page. Online shopping is already popular in the country; the BBC estimates...

Taking advantage perhaps of lowered expectations, two bellwether technology companies posted strong quarterly results that boosted optimism for the rest of the earnings season and helped lift the tech sector on the stock markets. Intel and Yahoo both managed to post earnings that exceeded expectatio...

The European Union today expanded its investigation into Intel's alleged anticompetitive practices, filing formal charges that demand explanations from four countries that require purchased computers to contain chips that only Intel can offer. The European Commission said such requirements might vio...

Now that the titans of e-commerce have been identified, search engines are leading the way for consumers online. At the same time, serious questions are emerging related to the efficacy of these search engines. If search engines are the principal devices for business access, then today's search resu...

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates introduced Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 today at a gala media event at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium with high hopes of bringing his market-dominant operating system out of the office and into the living room. "Today, the dream of digital entertainment becomes ...

A new federal tax bill passed by the Senate Monday and sent on to President George W. Bush for signature will have a spotty effect on technology budgeting, according to one prominent analyst. The tax bill, titled "American Jobs Creation Act of 2004," was designed partly to meet European Union object...

EBay's PayPal online payment service has been hit by a week-long series of technical glitches that have left some small merchants unable to receive payments. The problems have left some PayPal users unable to access the service or their accounts. PayPal is the most popular online payment service and...